Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. This is my first book by Cathy Kelly. Secrets of a Happy Marriage. I thought it was a good read. I will not give any spoilers but for me it was a slow read. I would recommend it if you are a fan of the author. I’ll be giving her books another try in the future.

I really adore Cathy Kelly's books. She is a great author who is able to juggle a large cast of characters and make you feel interested in all the intertwining stories.

I love her descriptions of Ireland and the fact her characters are built on real people.

This story centers around a late in life marriage for a career woman and her older husband and how Bess deals with being a step mother to two young adult women. While I did not expect to love all the characters, Bess, Cari, and JoJo all spoke to me.

As a big birthday party approaches, can the women put their differences aside?

If you are a fan of Maeve Binchey, you will love Cathy Kelly.

Bess and Edward are both on their second marriages and Edward is about to hit a milestone birthday. Bess wants to celebrate this birthday over the top, so a party in a memorable location with the ENTIRE family is on the to do list. I capitalize entire because this book was not just about Bess and Edward, but the entire family.



I like a book with a big cast of characters, but this one had a few too many. There were way too many meaty storylines going on and not a lot of secondary characters that just floated in the background. I would have almost loved this as a small series where one or two couples are focused on each book and the other family members are in and out. There were some notes taken while reading this book so I could remember who was who and what was what.



I did love the family aspect of this book. I love reading a family drama when there is interesting happenings going on with the family and if they each help each other they could almost solve all of the problems.



I liked her writing and would read more of her books, but I would want the cast of characters to just be a bit smaller.

This is my third book by Cathy Kelly and it certainly won't be my last. She has a way of writing heartwarming stories without them being too sweet and predictable. I also enjoy her characters, in this book especially. Bess felt very real and I enjoyed the way the family dynamics unfolded. Recommended!

Secrets of a Happy Marriage tells the stories of characters who face losses and must figure out how to regroup and live their lives. Edward's wife and Jojo's mother, Lottie, died. How do they choose to go on? What happens to Jojo when infertility is added to the mix? What about Cari who loses a fiance when he abandons her at the altar? And then there is Fainne who fled to America when she faced an unexpected pregnancy 40 years ago? There is also Bess who was left to raise her daughter Amy as a single parent.

All of these characters interact as a party is planned for Edward's seventieth birthday. There is one surprise and lots that happens as the characters face their futures.

I enjoyed this novel and will look forward to whatever Ms. Kelly writes next.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and Cathy Kelly.

I love Irish family sagas!
This one centers around Edward's upcoming 70th birthday party, hosted by his new wife. It follows many of the family members and their reactions to the party as well as the complications that are going on in their everyday lives.
Some reviewers didn't like that there were so many characters, but I didn't find that this was a huge issue. Even having a few POV characters that didn't really matter to the story didn't really detract from my enjoyment of it. I also saw some people who got confused by the flashbacks and that didn't happen to me at all. I appreciated each one of the flashbacks and how they fleshed out each of the characters' stories and gave us more of a sense of who they were and their motivations.
I really liked Cari's story, it was one of the best ones, could feel the emotional anguish of her past and how it affected her present. Didn't like Jojo at all, although I got where she was emotionally and how it drove her actions, I just wanted to shake her and tell her to chill out and grow up.
Overall this is a satisfying and intriguing read, if you like Jojo Moyes and Marian Keyes, you should definitely pick this one up.

The writing style of this author did not appeal to me so I did not progress past the first chapter of this book.

This is a new author for me so I was excited to see what she brought to the table. Sadly I didn’t love it in fact I’d have to say for me it is mediocre. There is going to be a lot of editing in this book! I’ve heard this author is a good one so I will try to read her other stuff but this one just wasn’t it for me